Michigan quarterback Shea Patterson said Sunday night that a viral tweet appearing to be from him was absolutely fake.
Twitter blew up late Sunday when a tweet appearing to be from the Michigan star ripped Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields and Wolverines head coach Jim Harbaugh. It looked like Patterson had meant to fire it off from a burner account, but was instead logged into his main one. (RELATED: July Is The Final Month Of 2019 Without College Football)
Did Michigan QB Shea Patterson mean to tweet this from his burner account?
Patterson referred to himself in 3rd person and threw shots at both Ohio State QB Justin Fields and Michigan HC Jim Harbaugh in a tweet response to a fan in a now-deleted tweet. pic.twitter.com/msdIba0Wix
— College Football Quotes (@cfbquotes) July 7, 2019
However, he claimed late Sunday night that the whole thing was fake. Patterson tweeted that the tweet “did not come from me or anyone close to me.” He added this was an attempt from somebody to “ruin” his day.
In regards to the nonsense from earlier today…The calls and notifications really jammed me up on the front 9 pic.twitter.com/dXbjqQmpol
— Shea Patterson (@SheaPatterson_1) July 8, 2019
I’m inclined to believe this was a fake situation that just happened to blow up Twitter before anybody had time to figure out what was going on.
You have to imagine there’s just no way Patterson is stupid enough to fire off a tweet from his own account appearing to be from a burner.
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Having said that, if Patterson really did make this very embarrassing mistake, then he has no choice but to deny until he dies for two reasons.
First, having a burner account as a major sports figure is outrageously embarrassing. I’m not saying that’s what happened here, but he certainly wouldn’t be the first one to do it.
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Secondly, the last thing you want to ever do is publicly flame your coach or an opponent. That’s a great way to get in trouble in the locker room.
Again, I’m inclined to believe Patterson, but the internet can be a crazy place at times.
It’s going to be fascinating to see what Patterson and the Wolverines are capable of doing this season. Expectations are sky high and the last thing they need to be dealing with are distractions coming from the internet.